It took me a moment to realize where I was. But when I remembered where I had seen the cardboard boxes before I shot open my eyes in surprise. ‘I thought I was dead. How am I still alive?’ The longer I thought about it, the more I began to believe that I was in my own person hell and there was no escape from this unknown world.
The sky outside began to light up from the sun and it filled the house with bright light. I walked over the cardboard boxes and began to un-pile them while flattening them into a stack on the floor. Every box I picked up I looked inside to see if Sam left anything behind; but there was nothing to be found. At least not until the last two boxes. Which had a drawing for a giant creature carrying a person into a lair of some kind on the inside, and the other box had the name Charlie written all over the inside.
After reading the name Charlie I remembered that I chasing after the beast that took Sam before I was pulled away. I dropped the box, with Charlie’s name in it, and ran downstairs for the front door. Not wanting to pulled away again I opened the front door, before stepping outside, to make sure I was going to step into the sand world outside. Everything seemed normal so I slowly took a step outside and closed my eyes and waited for something to happen. When nothing happened, I looked at the ground for any clues at to where the beast could have taken Sam. I saw fresh human foot prints in the sand even though I knew that these foot prints couldn’t lead me to Sam, because he had been gone all night, they were my best chance for finding him. They were coming from the front door and heading out into the vast sandy plain that laid ahead.
I stepped side by side the foot prints, so I wouldn’t miss it when they turned, even though the wind pushed me this way and that way I was still able to find and follow the foot prints. The sun was burning my back and my feet were sinking into the sand with every step I took, which slightly cooled me off. When the trail stopped, in the middle of nowhere, I looked around to see where the person would have gone, but there was no trace of them anywhere. The only thing around was an open field of sand slight sand hills in the distance.
Something tiny caught my eye in the distance. Hoping that it wasn’t another mirage I made my way towards it. Instead of only focusing on the object ahead of me, I glanced sideways every so often just to make sure that what I was looking at was real. No matter how many times I looked away and then looked back at it, the moving object was still in front of me. Which could only mean one thing. Whatever it was, it was real. Being excited to see something other than me I began running towards it.
Once I reached a few feet in front of the hill I noticed that it was a person walking on the hill. Trying to be friendly I yelled, “Hello.” The person stopped for a second but they didn’t turn towards me, so I walked closer to the hill and yelled at them again.
Being startled by my voice the person turned around so fast, and because they were standing in deep sand, their shoe slipped off their back foot. Not noticing that their foot wasn’t in a shoe they attempted to sand down the hill with their other foot, and that one got caught in the sand as well. Which ended with the person rolling down the hill, due to loosing their balance.
Trying to hide my school girl giggling I smiled as I watched him fall.
Not being worried that they were coated in sand he stood up and said, “Didn’t anyone tell you not to yell at people when they’re on a hill?”
“Ummm no.”
“Oh, well don’t do it. Or else this will happen.” He brushed himself, on his front, as quickly as possible and then spoke again. “What are you doing out here anyways?”
“I’m looking for a little boy named Sam, and the beast that took him.”
“What did this ‘beast’ look like?”
Thinking back, I said, “Ummm it was grey. With a thick head and skinny legs.”
Looking like he knew what I was talking about the man asked, “Was its name by chance Charlie?”
In amazement I asked curiously, “You know it?”
“That beast took my wife. One moment she was perfectly fine, we were looking for artifacts in a nearby cave and then she started to freak out of this Charlie. She kept saying that he was after her and there was nowhere she could hide. I tried to calm her down, but nothing worked. After giving up on the cave I put my arm around her shoulders and we exited the cave. But little did we know the beast was waiting for us outside of it. Before I could even try to protect her, the beast knocked me out and took my wife.”
Being sad all I could say was, “I’m sorry to hear about your wife.”
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“Ever since I woke up I’ve been looking for the beast’s lair to get her back.”
Being thankful that I could talk to someone about this beast I asked, “Would you mind if I came with you to find the beast?”
In a joking voice he said, “Yes I do mind.” He paused for a moment and said, “Just kidding, of course you can come along.” He starting making his way up the hill, probably to retrieve his shoes yelled down to me, “Before we go hunting for it we should load up on some weapons and get some sleep. Since we don’t know how long it will take to find Sam and my wife.”
I just stood at the bottom of the hill and waiting for him to make his way back down to the bottom.
Being more graceful, this time, he climbed down the hill and once he was in front of me he said, “Since we’ll be traveling together we should probably know each other’s names. I’m Leo”
I extended my hand out to him and said, “Adisson.”
“Well Adisson, shall we?” Leo asked as he took my hand. I followed him away from the hill and we walked for a fair distance. We eventually ended up at the area where the foot prints, that I was preciously following, disappeared.
I looked at Leo and asked, “There’s nothing here, why are we stopping?”
Letting go of my hand Leo said, “Just give it a minute.”
Just then a big metal cylinder appeared from the ground and lifted up just enough to match Leo’s height; who was slightly taller than me. One at a time we stepped into the cylinder, starting with Leo and then me, and once inside we were forcefully pushed downwards and into an open room below the surface. There was no cold air coming from the wind, and there was no trace of sand anywhere. I looked around the room and it looked like a hidden location that the CIA used to spy on people. There were big and little gadgets along one of the walls. On the wall in front of me were multiple televisions, of all different sizes, all showing a different location. Facing these televisions were two, tall, leather rolling chairs. The wall opposite the gadget wall had vests, I wanted to guess that they were bullet proof vests, and different everyday objects that could be used as weapons; such as a crowbar.
“Impressed yet?” I heard Leo say behind me.
Still looking around I said, “Yeah. How did you come across this place?”
“My wife and I were running from a blinding sand storm and when we saw the cylinder appear we decided to take the chance and climb inside of it. This place protects from all of the nasty weather and creatures that are outside.”
Turning to face Leo I asked, “How long have you and your wife been hiding here?”
“We’ve been here so long that not only have I lost count of the days but I don’t even know which week or month it is anymore. Besides my wife you’re the first person I’ve seen that hasn’t turned into some kind of monster.”
“Well when I left my brother it was a Wednesday, but that was days ago. I’ve been, to what appeared to be, a different time but once I arrived there I lost track of days as well.”
“The days don’t matter that much, as long as you stay sane.” Leo walked over the stainless steal vault, that was behind him. When he turned the wheel on the door it opened. Inside was every kind of weapon I have heard of and many more I didn’t even know the names of. Leo walked in and went straight for the guns. He grabbed a skinny and long gun, then he turned around and asked, “Have you ever shot a rifle before?”
Not saying a single word, I just stood there and shook my head back and forth.
“What about a shotgun? Or a handgun? Or machine gun?”
I just shook my head again.
“Have you shot anything?”
I lowered my head and said, “No.”
“You’re going to learn” Leo said as he handed me a small metal gun. “Come with me. I’ll show you how to shoot.”
Being unsure I wanted to learn I quietly said, “Okay.” I followed Leo to the back of the vault, where he knocked twice and then waited. The back wall slid open and revealed a place to practice shooting, among other weapon training.